i am a robot. i am the king’s robot. but that doesn’t make me so much different from other robots. he counts as half of my father b/c he built me but i’m not
human, if i am i would have been his son. i didn't have a specific job, i just did what he wanted me to do for most of the time——i helped him clean his chamber, put away old books; i helped him
tuck in his most precious daughter. that was the first time i have ever been into her chamber and the first time i’ve ever seen her. and then the king died out of severe illness. and then i was put
in the attic with all his old stuff. no one else except the king knew how to control me b/c he arranged the wires in my brain differently. days after days, years after years, i stood in that same
corner. spiders started weaving webs on my steel body, raindrops leaked between the gaps of the roof and rusted my joints. but it was fine, b/c i’m a robot, i don’t feel.

and then i found myself thinking about the king’s daughter——her pale smooth cheeks decorated with peachy pink, her eyelids fluttered when she was dreaming, her
curly lashes were red like her hair, and her cherry lips. what was she going to do when her father just left her like this? i’ve been thinking about her for years. and there they were, shooting
stars chasing each other across the night sky; i wonder if she’s ever had a chance to catch a glimpse of them and made wishes under their weak glow. how old is she now? 1, 2, 3, 4… 15. 15 years.
i’ve been standing here for 15 years. i’ve been thinking about her for 15 years.

until one cloudy day, she found me. her small body climbed up the ladder to the attic and until i saw all of her, i also saw those lash marks. i felt pain in my
chest but i had no heart.

since then, we became the closest friend of each other. she talked. i didn’t. i couldn’t. i wasn't set up to speak. but i knew she will be the next queen, through
her words i see the future. i gave her her father’s journals because he and i agreed, on making her the queen.

soon she was old enough to be independent, which means she had the right to become queen. she was smart, she’s always been smart, i can see it in her eyes that now
it became clear that she had to wipe out her enemies. her enemies, her siblings. i couldn't tell her what to do since i could not speak but it was obvious that her whole being had become the
embodiment for ambition. and yes, i watched her ended their lives; yes, i watched her climbing to the throne.

but the tears in her eyes.

where did her smile go?

“can you see? i am sitting here. i am the queen.”

yes, i can see.

“but i don’t… who would ever want to be queen?”

“…”

“i feel like i’m surrounded by heavy fog i’m… so confused… i can’t see my future no more.”

i am here to help. i am always here. i will always be here.

“i killed all my siblings for this stupid crown.”

don’t say that please. it breaks my heart to see you cry.

“i don’t see the point of living anymore… my hands are covered with blood, my heart had turn into pure black… i am giving all i have to you. i am giving you the
world.”

you are my world.

i pressed the self-destruction button at the moment she pierced her heart with a sword. she probably didn’t want me to die.

but she is my world, she is my everything. if i lost her i lost everything.

nobody knows what happened next to the kingdom. i wonder if it is in peace right now.